A Call for Proposals (CfP) for support to women-owned start-up businesses will be published in mid-June and will be open for one month at most. The best projects selected after the CfP closes will be granted support by the European Union and the Government of Switzerland and their implementation is expected to start as of September 2015.
The European PROGRES Programme, within which women start-ups will be supported, held a set of information sessions on the grant process entitled “Time for Successful Women” in Vranje, Niš, Leskovac, Blace, Ivanjica, Nova Varoš and Novi Pazar in the 26 March – 8 April 2015 period.
The info sessions were attended by 420 participants from 34 South East and South West Serbian local self-governments, who were familiarised with the general CfP eligibility requirements, how to apply and the areas in which the Programme will extend support to future women entrepreneurs.
“The CfP is open only to unemployed women registered with the National Employment Service for at least three months without interruption, who are permanently residing and planning on launching their businesses in one of the 34 local self-governments in the Programme area. European PROGRES will award grant projects in total amount of 400,000 Euro to the successful candidates. Each candidate is entitled to submit only one project proposal and will be awarded one grant, in equipment, machinery and/or durable goods, worth 10,000 Euro at most. The plan is to support up to 40 women start-ups,” said Ana Nedeljković, Programme Associate for Good Governance and Gender Equality within European PROGRES.
“The Programme will support businesses involved in production or services and all projects will be selected in a transparent and competitive process. The selection criteria will include assessment of the relevance of the project proposals to the objectives of the Call, the expected project outcomes, the sustainability of the proposed activities, the relevance of the project budgets and, of course, their cost-effectiveness. Only once the project proposals are finally approved, and before the procurement and delivery of the requisite equipment, machines and/or durable goods, the future women entrepreneurs will initiate the process of registering their companies with the Business Registers Agency,” said Dragan Mladenović, Manager of the European PROGRES Good Governance and Social Inclusion Sector.
The projects are to be implemented within 12 months from the day the grant contracts are signed. If necessary, European PROGRES will extend the grantees additional professional support in accounting, marketing and management.
One-day business plan preparation trainings will be held in May for all the candidates who applied for training at the information sessions.
Women entrepreneurs, who have already successfully launched their own businesses thanks to grants approved under the prior three-year EU PROGRES Programme, also addressed the info session participants. Associations of Business Women in Vranje and Niš, local gender equality mechanisms and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) presented their activities in this field to the session participants as well.
Should you require any additional information on the requirements for participating in the training sessions and the public CfP, please feel free to contact:
Ana Nedeljković, Programme Associate for Good Governance and Gender Equality
E-mail: anan@unops.org
Tel: 381 (0) 18 246 126
and
Edin Bašić, Programme Assistant
E-mail: edinb@unops.org
Tel: 381 (0) 20 337 300
